Harvest pics (was Fruitset!)
 

Bush Early Girl, dont know how I missed this one yesterday when I was out in the garden with my electric toothbrush. Its been awhile since Ive seen a baby tomato.

[IMG]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e374/duajones/fruitset.jpg[/IMG]

(through gritted teeth) Congrats! ;) ;) ;)

I've got lots of buds on most of my tomato plants. No flowers yet.

Hey duajones!!!

You did it ! Congrats !

~ Tom

Hating you as I am on my way out to shovel some snow.

Congrats... really.

Good work! Come August we'll be jealous of all the folks in the Frozen Polar North. Enjoy your tomatoes during the spring/summer opportunity.

Fruit set?? Good job, Duane! I'm at least 7-10 days away from that. :( Need to start earlier next year. Not that it's a contest or anything -- :twisted:

I appreciate the replies, especially with it being a hybrid. I am growing this variety because it was so prolific last year, with one plant even though it was in a container, and I didnt keep up with my daconil regimen like I should have. Over 40 toms off the variety with foliage problems, and while it isnt even close in taste to the few heirlooms I have eaten, it still beats the hell out of store bought tomatoes. And Suze, you are exactly right, no contest here, we all deal with the conditions and climate that we are dealt. And I also spotted my first stink bug today, so we are along way from any so called success. Heres hoping for a good season for all including myself.

Duane

[quote=duajones;50715]I appreciate the replies, especially with it being a hybrid. I am growing this variety because it was so prolific last year, with one plant even though it was in a container, and I didnt keep up with my daconil regimen like I should have. Over 40 toms off the variety with foliage problems, and while it isnt even close in taste to the few heirlooms I have eaten, it still beats the hell out of store bought tomatoes. And Suze, you are exactly right, no contest here, we all deal with the conditions and climate that we are dealt. And I also spotted my first stink bug today, so we are along way from any so called success. [B]Heres hoping for a good season for all including myself.
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I'll drink (hot tea) to that! :mrgreen:

Big beef and Jet Star have also set fruit this morning

So far, bush early girl, big beef, jet star, sungold,cherokee purple and black krim have set fruit. bush celebrity had some blossom drop but is trying to set now, azoychka seemed to be a slow starter blossom wise, but is well on its way now. Brandywine has had lots of blossom drop but finally had its first blossom open yesterday without dropping. NBD has dropped all of its blossoms so far.

Jet Star, Brandywine OTV, [B]Kimberly[/B], and Brandy Boy have set.

I don't think I have had any blossom drop. Sungold is loading up with blossoms.

None of those 9 blossoms on my stunted Cherokee Purple have set yet, despite diligent pollination with an electric toothbrush. I really should try to get video of the pollen shooting out of the flower. ;)

Woo!! Congrats! I have about ten little toms on my Sugary plant, and this morning I found pea-sized fruit on Arkansas Traveler and Silvery Fir Tree. I'm so glad I crossed my fingers and planted out two weeks earlier than I'd originally planned.

Duane,

Yours look just like mine. I have about 25% of the 350 plants with baby's. I expect they all will in a week or so.

I love being an expectant father! LOL

Michael

Feldon, My CP was a real slow grower for some reason, it was started on christmas just like most of the rest, and plants that were started weeks later caught up to it. I only put one in the ground for that reason. But it is growing nicely now and has 4-5 set fruit already. I am crossing my fingers with this plant, as the most fruitset I had before was 8 or so. It didnt even get a spot in my newly prepared beds, I stuck in in a spot all by itself figuring if it didnt do anything, no big deal.
Michael, I cant imagine dealing with 350 plants. Wow!

My Paul Robeson has also pulled a "let's grow a blossom that isn't a blossom where the main leader should be". It is also producing sucker growth to try to compensate for the terminated leader.

How strange. I did not experience this at all last year.

I'm jealous. My plants will go into the ground this weekend. Good thing I didn't plant early as we had a little hailstorm this morning.

I'm crossing my fingers, toes and everything else, it may hail tonight. I have baby Brandywines! This is SO not fair!!!

OK, enough whining. I was happy to have flowers on all my tomato plants so far, but I think it's been a little humid for fruit set.

Feldon, I've got the same thing on my plants, but they all seem to be growing fine. Just a little wider instead of straight up. Some are starting to look like little kids pretending to be trees (standing with arms up in a "Y").

laurel-tx

What a difference a day makes... yesterday I had ten on the Sugary plant, today it's two dozen. I also have five Silvery Fir Tree babies, a Creole, and an Arkansas Traveler. Now let's hope these storms today don't beat everything to death.

One of my 2 fruitset on OTV is a double-fruit. Could be one seriously sized tomato. ;) Got some on Kimberly in case I failed to mention. Still waiting for that cluster of 9 flowers on my CP to give me at least a few.

azoychka has joined in now. Feldon, radar looks like some possible severe weather in your area, hope all goes well

Nothing possible about it. ;)

It's been raining since 6am. But it's been mostly gentle rain. No torrential soil-splashin' fungus-spreadin' downpours. Of course I watered everything really well yesterday. :(

Argh. Most of my back yard and about a quarter of my garden is under ankle-deep water. We had a lot of heavy rain. It's tapering off now and my plants look pretty battered. I'm sure they'll bounce back, though.

At two this morning, it looked like the storm would be traveling straight down I-10. But I think most of the energy poured out west of San Antonio. We didn't get any hail here, either (who knew crossing toes would work:lol:).

laurel-tx

FlipTX,

Gotta get you some raised beds and maybe dig up the yard and put drainage tubes. I know -- $$. :(

Yeah my whole yard needs work. Bleh. The parts that aren't under water right now [I]are[/I] raised beds and containers. So at least I've got that. :)

Do you guys do anything like shaking the plant, flicking blossoms, etc. to help pollination? I have lots of flowers right now, but no fruit yet (might still be a little too cold overnight here).

Thanks!

Outside I don't bother with that much. The wind weather and bees take care of that pretty well. But if you have the time on your hands, maybe shaking could force those few 0-20% leftover flowers on each truss that normally fall off to pollinate.

I am using an inexpensive disposable battery powered toothbrush that I lightly touch to the stem of the blossoms and can see the pollen come out. Im not sure if I am making any difference but it couldnt hurt I suppose.

I am using a Sonicare toothbrush to do the same as Duane. Seem to have some good fruitset except the 9 blossoms on Cherokee Purple are being quite stubborn.

When there's no breeze to speak of, sometimes I'll shake the cage/stakes a little, or flick a few branches as I walk by. I did that with my Brandywine last year. We had a lot of humid, very warm, breezeless days. But if there's some wind blowing, I don't bother.

Looks like I have a couple Jaune Flamme coming along now.